2023-10-14 13:00:00
Yesterday followingnoon in the Brussels parliament, PTB MP Francis Dagrin asked the government for the amount of subsidies granted to Audi Brussels, which has been plagued by several work stoppages since the announcement of the suspension of production of the Q4 SUV, promised to the Forest factory for the month of November while the production schedule for 2024 remains unclear.
The Secretary of State in charge of Economic Transition Barbara Trachte (Ecolo) – who responded for the Minister of Employment Bernard Clerfayt (Défi) – did not reveal the public amounts granted to the German manufacturer. “We are worried and concerned regarding the decisions that are being taken by this company, one of the most important industrial players in our region,” she remarked before reminding that Audi Forest cannot benefit from the vast majority of Brussels aid due to its excessive size. The company also did not request public aid to which it might have been entitled.
In reality, since 2016, Audi Brussels has benefited from more than 8 million euros of public money, via two means: paid educational leave and aid for research, development and innovation. For this last branch, “Audi was supported for two feasibility studies and an experimental development project,” explained Secretary of State Ecolo. Obviously, Audi Brussels generates revenue for Brussels finances.
Work stoppage at Audi
Since 2016, Innoviris, the institute for encouraging scientific research and innovation, has granted 5.51 million euros in these research, development and innovation programs as part of the Explore, Shape, R&D Project projects. (RDIDS) and Feasibility Studies (FST) including 3 million in 2017 and just over 1.5 million euros in 2018, a little before the adaptation of production lines to electric models.
Audi also received lump sum reimbursements as part of paid educational leave. This mechanism allows employers to send their staff for training while maintaining their salary through receipt of compensation paid by the Brussels Region. For the record, Audi went from 400 to 1,000 workers in 2018-2019 and transformed its production line into electric mode. As such, Audi Forest received up to 3 million euros to train its employees and workers.
That is, in total, more than 8 million euros in less than eight years for a company that employs fewer than 300 Brussels residents. As such, the company had signed an agreement with Actiris, VDAB Brussels and Bruxelles Formation in order to increase the number of Brussels workers at Audi Forest. Actiris, among other things, provided a “sectoral team available to the employer in order to best respond to the needs and requests in terms of advice and recruitment”, committed to adapting its training offer according to the needs of Audi, etc. . In return, Audi undertook “to communicate all offers published externally and whose place of work is Brussels”.
In 2021, the boss of Audi announced that employment would be guaranteed for several years
This convention seems not to have borne fruit. In 2017, the then Minister of Employment Didier Gosuin (Défi) took an initial assessment of this convention, launched less than a year earlier. “Since 2017, Audi Brussels has hired 13 permanent employees and 76 temporary workers from Brussels,” he announced following indicating that the Brussels employment rate within Audi Forest reached 12%, growing. Alas, yesterday Barbara Trachte announced that the employment rate of Brussels at Audi Forest was 10%.
For the record, the management of Audi Brussels requested a conciliation meeting with the unions at the FPS Employment, Labor and Social Dialogue on Wednesday evening, Belga learned from the unions.
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